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The Battle

Early in 1944 the Japanese 15th Army commanded by General Renya Mutagushi launched a pre-emptive strike across theChindwinRiver. It’s primary aim and purpose was to encircle and destroy the British IV Corps at Imphal to prevent the launch of a British & Indian attack across the border to retakeBurma.

To achieve this Mutagushi ordered 2 of his divisions, the 15th & 33rd to encircle and destroy the British and Indian forces on the Imphal Plain. His 3rd Division, the 31st, commanded by Lt Gen Sato was to strike west to cut the road between the great supply depot and railhead at Dimapur thus preventing reinforcements from going to the aid of IV Corps. The road was to be cut at the small hill station of Kohima which sat at the pass through the hills. Once this was achieved, Mutagushi further planned to head off intoIndia proper. He had been convinced that the Indians would then rise up in support against the British. This, the Japanese claimed, was the start of their march onDelhi.

The British of course knew that the Japanese were heading towards Kohima but they didn’t fully appreciate the numbers and the speed of approach. The Japanese 31st Division comprised about 13,500 men!!

Kohima was almost like a transit camp, with soldiers coming and going all of the time as the buildup in Imphal progressed, there was a field bakery, a hospital, vehicle repairs, a leave camp and a battle casualty reinforcement camp. With the constant movement of men, the best estimate is that the Garrison, commanded by Colonel H.U.W. Richards, consisted of about 1,500 combatant troops. These were mainly about 420 officers & men from the 4th battalion of the Queens Own Royal West Kent regiment who together with the remainder of their brigade, the 161st from 5th Indian Division had been airlifted out from the Arakan to meet the threat.

Elements of the Assam Rifles and Assam Regiment together with the soldiers from the leave & reinforcement camp formed the remainder. The Japanese arrived in the Kohima area on the 4th April and by the 5th they were fully engaged with the garrison. Slowly, day by day the defenders were inexorably driven in on their final defensive position – the Deputy Commissioner’s tennis court and his bungalow.

In the meantime, the British 2nd Division was some 2000 miles away in the south west of India at Belgaum. To meet the emergency the Division was rushed across India by road, rail and air. Speed was the essence because the Japanese had also cut the Dimapur / Kohima road as well and the small Garrison was completely surrounded. In Kohima itself, the Garrison was holding on, but was very nearly at the limit of its endurance. There was no time to form a proper divisional concentration at Dimapur and, as units of the 2nd Division arrived, they went straight into action, piecemeal.

On 12 Apr 44, 1st battalion Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, with artillery and tank support, attacked and destroyed the Japanese position near the thirty-seventh milestone. 2nd Division’s operations to relieve 161st Brigade and the Kohima Garrison went on rapidly and on Tuesday 18th April 1944, the small garrison was relieved and the siege lifted. The Japanese advance had been checked. The invasion of India had been halted. From the time orders were received at Belgaum more than 2,000 miles away the British 2nd Division had taken only thirty one days to collect, organize and transport itself to engage with the enemy and to begin to push it back.

The immediate future, however, was forbidding, for the Japanese still held most of Kohima, and their positions, dug deep into commanding hillsides with interlocking support, were very strong. The fighting went on for a further 7 weeks before the Japanese were finally forced to withdraw from the field. The leading elements of the relieving column from the British and Indian army heading towards Imphal met the advance column of IV Corps at milestone 109 on the 22nd June. TheBattle for Kohima was over!

The Japanese left behind around 7,000 dead and the British & Indian Army had around 4,000 casualties.

In the aftermath of the battle it has been said that there have been longer sieges but there have been fewer that were bloodier.

This was a battle in which everyone took part. There were no onlookers and the fighting was hand to hand for the most part. No-one was spared and 2 more Brigadiers were killed as were 5 Commanding Officers as testimony to the ferocity of the fighting.

The Battle of Kohima, in the opinion of many, was the decisive period of theBurmacampaign. Had Kohima fallen it is difficult to see how Imphal could have been relieved in time.

More detailed works exist which go into greater detail about theBattleand associated actions.